Patient education can be improved through technology usage. However, despite the available information technologies, professionals still do not use them fully. Informatics is among the areas that can help enhance patient education and outcomes. However, nurses lack adequate skills to use the systems to ensure that patients get information timely. During the state nurse association meeting, one proposed solution is employing nurse informaticists to fill the informatics gap in the staff. Therefore, the proposal will explain who the professionals are, what they do, and how they can help the organization improve patient information through the available and new technologies they may acquire.
Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist
Nurse informatics is a field that arose from the combination of information science in nursing. The field concerns healthcare information technologies like databases, patient portals, and electronic records. The primary goal of the field is to enhance the usage of information in nursing roles. The field involves data collection, analysis, and dissemination (Booth et al., 2021). Using portals and mobile apps to educate patients is an example of information dissemination. Applying the field will improve patient education by helping determine the technologies to use and the implementation.
Nurse informaticists are nurses trained to work in the dual field of information science application in nursing. Usually, the candidates for the role train as nurses so that they understand what nursing entails and then train in information science. The professionals, therefore, understand nurse ethics and other factors that affect nursing. They also understand information technology and methods (Booth et al., 2021). Consequently, they play roles in information analysis and technology usage and can help patient education through portals and electronic records. Nurses help their peers employ the available technologies to provide care and educate patients (Lindsay & Lytle, 2022). They can also help acquire new systems that aim to respond to the organization’s information needs.
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
Other healthcare organizations have used nurse informaticists to improve care and education. Vuong et al. (2021) studied how a facility in South California used portals to reach their patients with information. Informaticists were among the team members who were involved in making the project a success. Nurse informaticists also helped the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to use information technologies like patient portals and websites to educate their patients (Begonia, 2022). therefore, available evidence from the sector supports the implementation of the technologies. The professionals help organizations to better use their information systems to save costs, improve patient experience, and cause general nursing quality improvements.
Nurse informaticists collaborate in interprofessional care teams to improve care. Usually, they are embedded with interdisciplinary care teams and collaborate with other members to get information and use it in patient education and care decisions. For instance, informaticists help other members get and interpret evidence when caring for patients. They may also help them disseminate the information to patients needing it. for instance, during COVID-19, the professionals helped combine data and evidence to educate patients using the patient portals (Vuong et al., 2021). They also helped other professionals implement telehealth systems. They can also help other nurses follow HIPPA rules and protect themselves and their patients.
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
As important stakeholders in patient care, nurses’ full engagement is necessary in healthcare technology. The professionals spend most of their time with patients and are usually the closest to patients. Hence, their involvement in any decisions affecting patients’ welfare is necessary. Nurse involvement will improve patient care through health education by enabling improved patient information flow (Booth et al., 2021). Informaticists will improve patient care and experiences by getting information from various sources, analyzing it, and sharing it with patients through portals and other systems. Involving them will enable them to contribute to implementing technologies responsive to patient needs.
The informaticists will also help improve information security to protect privacy and confidentiality. Informaticists understand the patient rights that concern information. They know HIPAA provisions. The law protects people’s identifiable information from access. Therefore, when determining the portal’s design or acquiring any other technologies that use patient information, they will ensure that the technologies have the security features needed to ensure information security. They also help their peers protect patient’s data in care settings.
Full engagement will also improve technology incorporation in the workflow. Usually, technologies may increase the skills needed to complete a role (Booth et al., 2021). They may also add the steps involved (Booth et al., 2021). For instance, patient portals may reduce the need for patients to visit in person for education. Nurses, on the other hand, have to provide the information used in the portals to educate patients. They must find the information and, rather than wait until they meet in person, send it to patients who need it via the portals. Therefore, there will be differences in the workflow. Full engagement will ensure that the designs are user-friendly for patients and nurses to enable easy usage.
Full engagement is also linked to cost reductions. The quadruple aim requires that cost implications be considered to make healthcare cost-friendly. Full nurse engagement ensures quick uptake and that the technologies’ benefits are realized early. It also reduces potential incompetence in the usage that may contribute to lawsuits and increased patient stays. For instance, including nurses in the usage of patient portals will ensure that they are prepared to give the required information to patients to enable their decision-making.
Opportunities and Challenges
One opportunity for the interdisciplinary teams and nurses that will come with introducing the nurse informaticist role is the improved usage of patient portals, electronic health records and other available information systems (Lindsay & Lytle, 2022). Informaticists will help their peers upload information to patients’ portals to help them remain educated. Physicians, nurses, and other professionals in the healthcare teams will get help with troubleshooting and improving information security when using the available systems. The informaticists will also improve the communication among team members concerning patient education.
One challenge that may arise is team members’ failure to understand the nurse informaticist’s role in patient education. The professionals will be new to the facility. Therefore, implementors should anticipate that team members may initially not fully grasp the importance of the professionals (Lindsay & Lytle, 2022). Failing to know their functions may impede their inclusion in patient care by other team members. Therefore, it will be necessary to educate professionals about the role of preparing them and improving their involvement in patient care.
Summary and Recommendations
One takeaway is that the use of various healthcare information systems like patient portals and databases makes nurse informaticists important. Now, replacing paper-based communication with electronic systems means the facility should also embrace changes and prepare for future challenges by employing nurse informaticists to help other professionals handle and use the information to better healthcare. The professionals have information science knowledge and skills that other nurses lack. Hence, they can help incorporate the knowledge and technologies by improving nurse involvement.
I recommend that the facility hires nurse informaticists to reach par with other providers benefitting from the role. Organizations have already implemented the nurse informaticist role and have benefitted from it. The hospital has been left behind and should accept the current information technology changes to improve its effectiveness. We have the needed technology. However, our technology usage is not optimal, especially in patient education. Hiring nurse informaticists will ensure that the current technologies serve patent needs. They will ensure that they also protect patient information.
Hiring the professionals will promote nurse involvement in technology implementation. As qualified nurses, informaticists also understand nursing perspectives. Therefore, they will contribute nurse perspectives to ensure that changes positively influence the workflow, care quality, and cost reduction (Booth et al., 2021). A part from reducing care costs for payers and the facility, it will also reduce the legal risks involved in patient information handling.
References
Begonia, K. (2022). Usability of Health-Related Websites by Filipino-American Adults and Nursing Informatics Experts (Doctoral dissertation, City University of New York).https://www.proquest.com/openview/5a9b085a662428cd3a4e5cadac36737d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Booth, R., Strudwick, G., McMurray, J., Chan, R., Cotton, K., & Cooke, S. (2021). The future of nursing informatics in a digitally-enabled world. Introduction to nursing informatics, 395-417.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58740-6_16
Jedwab, R. M., Hutchinson, A. M., Manias, E., Calvo, R. A., Dobroff, N., Glozier, N., & Redley, B. (2021). Nurse motivation, engagement and well-being before an electronic medical record system implementation: a mixed methods study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2726.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052726
Lindsay, M. R., & Lytle, K. (2022). Implementing best practices to redesign workflow and optimize nursing documentation in the electronic health record. Applied Clinical Informatics, 13(03), 711-719.DOI: 10.1055/a-1868-6431
Vuong, K. T., Rungvivatjarus, T., Garcia, I. P., Lewis, C., Miller, L., & Kuelbs, C. L. (2021). Rapid implementation of remote online patient portal activation in a children’s hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. ACI Open, 5(01), e17-e26.
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